What's on your WORK BENCH - JULY 2021

Good morning, All~


Looks like I mis-reported these on the June Work Bench.....


Here is a pair of Cans - From the Bench of George Williams. They are his first carving post shoulder surgery.




This little aero-plane is for my Grandson. Susan and I have not seen my daughter's family since Christmas 2019 - as they live in Berlin.




This is the first propeller I have carved.....I 'll be looking to see if Lufthansa uses Mahogany to "propel" their airships.


The "pilot" will turn 4 in October.

Before we leave JFK, I will deliver another ramp to my Mom's home. We hope she will return there (now rehabbing broken hip and shoulder) before we get back from across the Pond. A pair of Mahogany handrails will get bolted on during installation.




All the best,


SJS
 
Pat, I agree with Steve. Sweet pose on that decoy.

That?s a fine looking aero plane Steve. Should be good for a cross Atlantic flight. Safe travels.
 
Patrick, really nice work. Did you do it your self or is the metal parts a kit, if so where did you get it? I found a draw knife at a yard sale [poor condition with large chips]. Gonna try to restore it this winter. What did you fininsh the wood with?
 
Capt Rich Geminski said:
Patrick, really nice work. Did you do it your self or is the metal parts a kit, if so where did you get it? I found a draw knife at a yard sale [poor condition with large chips]. Gonna try to restore it this winter. What did you fininsh the wood with?
Click to expand...

Capt
The iron is from lee valley. I like the way they adjust, no tools required you loosen the top nut and then turn the thumb screws to set the depth and then tighten the nut.
I'm trying to make some of my own tools for carving decoys. I'm trying to make some carving knives, there is a learning curve to grinding and heat treating and annealing. If I learn that maybe I'll try to make the irons.


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Steve

Since you asked the below is a quick-and-dirty tutorial on my typical painting process.

For starters I typically paint in front of an open door at my workshop or outside in the driveway on a cloudy day when the sun and shadows are not an issue. I use an old outdoor swinging chair stand to hang parts from. This one was found on the roadside. I hang parts with bailing wire. A roll goes a long way and cuts easily with dykes and twists by hand or pliers.

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I set up a temporary workbench adjacent to the area I'm painting and try and get out all needed supplies before I spray anything.

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I have a plumbed air system with overhead line spool (forgot to get a picture of it) and a wall mounted regulator. I set the psi to 40-50 lb range. Too much pressure and all you do is make a paint cloud. Less is better, to a point.

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Some of the items I use are mixing cups, gloves, sprayer, respirator, primer, paint, filters, and a solvent to clean the gun afterwards (lacquer thinner is good for this). Whether I'm using a small detail sprayer or larger hvlp rig I need a stand to rest the gun for filling/refilling and to set down during the paint session. I have a nice stand for my hvlp gun, for this small detail gun a makeshift stand is all it takes.

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As for paint I am a fan of two part paints. Single pack paints take too long to dry and are often too thick to spray. In between coats you have to clean the gun. But with two part paints I can move from one coat right on to the next. That is a huge time saver and I don't have to wait overnight to put a second coat on. Pictured above is my old tried and true primer system, PPG 4 DP40LF/402LF. That stuff sticks like mad and wears like iron. Never had a single problem with it after many years of using it. For the topcoat I like BLP Mothane but will use whatever is needed get the job done. However, I don't spray any water-based paints.

The gun shown above is a old Campbell Hausfeld touch-up sprayer I bought over 20 years ago at Lowe's. I don't think they make it anymore but it wasn't that expensive, and sprays good enough for the jobs I do. If you were painting a car you'd go with a higher quality gun, but for for less critical applications the cheap box store guns are fine. Is it simple in that it only has two points of adjustment. The knurled knob on the back controls volume of paint coming out of the gun, and the smaller knob towards the front controls the air flow that changes the shape of the paint pattern (round to oval). That's it. The only thing that really ever gives me problems is spraying thicker paints and getting enough paint out of the gun. These guns won't push heavy body paints so you have to develop a feel for the viscosity and thin with whatever the paint label calls for. Two part paints are usually good right out of the can. It's single part paints that give me grief over this. I have several guns with larger reservoirs, including the hvlp ones with the reservoir on top. They all get the job done. Again, unless you are doing really high end automotive work these cheap guns are fine, imho.

With all that said the painting itself is really straightforward. I put just enough on to cover, to avoid drips, and then as it sets up put another coat on top. Below are a few pictures taken after the paint and primer are on. One thing I forgot to mention is I spend considerable time getting parts ready. That usually entails paint stripping via soak in boiling lye solution, wire wheeling, and media blasting, followed by taping off areas that I don't want to get paint on. When it comes down to it the prep work and cleanup is 90% or more of the effort. The actual painting is the easy part.

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I've been away at the cabin for awhile so when i got back in town I stared to tackle a big decoy project. 66 Restle/Fowl Folers, 24 herters 72's, 36 plywood silhouettes. The Restles are from my current rig that I painted 10 or 2 years ago. The fowl foolers I just bought raw from the factory . The herters are the old flat bottom style. I am using a head mold that i have on all of my other Restle bodies. Never cared for their heads. Used 10 lb. foam .
After inspection of the older birds I made repairs to the burlapped bodies mainly on the tails where it was worn through. Mixed up some system three epoxy and a little sawdust sprinkled on top .
A first for me in the trestle coating process. I RAN OUT OF SAWDUST. So I went to HD and bought an orange bucket and a guy let me take what i needed from the saw dust collector.
All the bodies got either a coating is titebond 2 or rustoleum then sawdust then after drying another topcoat of rustoleum.
The new bodies from fowl cooler have a recess in the bottom that gets a glued in wood plug to anchor a keel securely but for now made a handy place to insert a 3/4 piece of wood for a temporary handle . The heads take about a half hour each to make . You have to coat the mold with a release agent and mix the two part foam and have about 90 seconds to clamp the mold before it expands wait 25 minutes and pop it out. You still need to dress it up a bit.
I included a pic of my jerk cord pole and judging from the shot marks the birds seem to like the rig.
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